Either a potato or macaroni salad
will keep in your refrigerator up
to 6 days as long as you have it
covered and well wrapped and don't
leave it out too long when you
have some. Of course that's only
if you don't eat the entire bowl
in 2 days flat anyway.

One of the biggest reasons you
would want to always have some
in your kitchen every couple
of weeks is because it's a fast
and good tasting way to have
a little something in between
your main meals. It can be made
over the span of a few TV commercials
and after knowing that, it removes
all the arguments for not making
any. ha ha

Anything that provides you with
good tasting food, while not making
very much money as you wait out
the VA as they make their careers
on your ONE disability claim,
is worth pursuing in your kitchen.

Just like chile or spagetti or
tacos, everybody has their own
special way of making potato or
macaroni salad. If you are new
to the kitchen, either newly
widowed or divorced, or perhaps
just starting out in life after
duty, then learn these 2 salads
early on as they go with just
about everything in a main
meal, and they are a good snack
between meals too.

I'll give to you my own version
and you can start from that,
and then add or take away from
this base recipe as you wish
later on, and recapture how you
especially like YOURS.

There are 2 things you can pick
up at the Food Pantry that you
use: a box of regular elbow macaroni
or a large jar of Hellman's Mayo.
Maybe stock up on some salt and
pepper if they have that too.

Then with your food stamps, pick
up celery stalks, 2 cucumbers,
and 1 green pepper. If you like
hard boiled eggs on your salads,
then pick up a dozen eggs. If you
like a little onion in your salads,
get a good sized onion or a bag
of onions to bring home. For
potato salad, pick out about
5 good sized potatos or a bag
of potatos to bring home for
the week.

POTATO SALAD


In a large 6 inch diameter pan,
peel and cut up into halves,
4 to 5 large potatos and then
cover with cold water, and bring
to a boil on your stove. Add
a little salt. Turn the stove
down to medium heat, and boil
the potatos until you can poke
them with a fork and have them
tender all the way through.
(about 15 minutes)

After they are soft in the middle,
turn off the stove and dump the
whole pot into a pasta strainer
(collander) and let the water
drain off and the potatos cool
off for a few minutes. Put the
potatos in a large bowl,
put some aluminum foil on top
and place the bowl in the refrigerator.

Let the potatos cool for about
2 hours or so. (you can even do
this before going to bed at night)

If you desire a little onion, cut
off 2 good slices of onion, wrap
up the onion in plastic wrap and
put it back in your refrigerator.
Cut the onion slices first one direction
then the other to make little cubes
and squares. Put in a cereal bowl.

Get your green pepper, and cut
off the bottom end where the stem
is just slicing downward and taking
the whole end right off and throw
it out. On the top end of the pepper,
take your knife and poke downward
through the top, and circle around
the stem and then pull that out.
The seed core will be attached.
Throw the stem and the seeds away.
Take the shell of the green pepper
and rinse it under cold water
to remove the rest of the seeds.

Slice up the shell of the green
pepper into large pieces, and
then start cutting those down
into small dices and squares too.
Put those into the cereal bowl
with your onions.

Then take 1 or 2 stalks of celery.
Cut those away from the stalk
at the bottom of the stalk. Then
cut off both ends by about 1/2
an inch to make nice clean
stalks. Then wash the stalks under
cold water and remove any soil
residue from the garden. Cut away
any bad spots.

Take the celery stalks and make
thin slices from one end of the
stalk towards the other end. Put
the celery pieces into the cereal
bowl with the green pepper and
onions.

Take your chilled potatos out
of the fridge, remove them
from the bowl and cut them up
into 1 inch squares and place
the potato pieces back into
the large bowl. When the potatos
are all cut up, then add the
contents of the cereal bowl
with the celery, green pepper,
and onion pieces.

Sprinkle salt and pepper all
over the mixture, and then
mix it carefully a few times
and salt and pepper a second
time.

Take a large spoon, and scoop
out 2 to 3 large spoonfuls of
Hellmans Mayo into the bowl.
Gently mix the salad together.
The potatos will break down
and make a nice blend that you
are familiar with.

Cover the bowl again and put
back in your fridge.

Potato salad can be eaten as
a snack between your main meals.
It goes with potato chips, pickles,
cold beans (see that in other
forum Post below), or the sandwich
of your choice --- even Tacos if
you are having those. Not very hungry?
Make a half sandwich instead.
Ham or hot dogs work. Potato salad
goes with any meat including pork
chops, chicken, burgers, or cold
beef.

If you do not have a real onion,
then you can shake a little onion
powder in it's place. If you like
sliced hard boiled eggs on top,
then see below.



MACARONI SALAD

Take a large pan about 6 inches
in diameter and fill it with
cold water. Bring the water to
a boil. Pour in enough elbow
macaroni to cover the entire bottom
of the pan by at least 2 inches, or
more if you want. Macaroni doubles
in size when it cooks to estimate
this out as well as you can. You
will get better with experience.

Turn the heat down to medium
and boil the macaroni until you
can take one of the pieces with
a fork and break it easily when
pressed to the side of the pan.
You want to make sure the macaroni
is cooked all the way through.

Dump the whole pan into a pasta
strainer (collander) and let the
water drain off. Rinse the macaroni
under cold water to help cool it
down. Put the cooled macaroni in
a large salad bowl.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then
mix a little and then sprinkle with
salt and pepper again.

Again take 2 slices off an onion,
rewrap the onion and put it back
in the refrigerator. Cut up the
onion into little dices and squares
first in one direction then the
other.

Dump those into the macaroni.
Take 2 good sized spoonfuls of
Hellmans Mayo with a large spoon
and put that into the macaroni
and onions. Mix it all up good
so the macaroni is fully covered
with Mayo. Cover the bowl and
then chill it for about 2 hours.

Cut up 2 stalks of celery just
like the instructions above in
the Potato Salad. Peel 1 of the
cucumbers (kept in the fridge)
and slice off both ends to
remove the stems. Cut the cucumber
lengthwise down the middle in
half. Then slice off the ends
of the cuke from one end in the
direction of the other, just like
the celery. This will give you
2 half slices per cut.

Put the cucumber into the macaroni
with the onions and celery.

Here you can add cold chicken pieces
from any leftover chicken that you
like if you want to. Some people
like to take a small can of green
peas, drain the water off, rinse
them under cold water, and put them
into the macaroni salad. This adds
"fill" and variety to the salad
without adding calories.

In the South, people like to add
1 teaspoon of mustard or chop up
some pickles to put into the macaroni.

Some people like to shred a carrot
and add it to the macaroni.

If you only use the celery, onions,
and cucumbers, then this is plenty
and it makes a nice starter salad
for anything you would want to combine
it with such as a sandwich or a hot
bowl of soup.

Add at least 1 more large spoonful
of Hellmans Mayo to moisten up
the macaroni, because it absorbs
on the first pass during the chilling
process. Mix the final spoon of Mayo
with the added vegetables and macaroni
and put it back in the refrigerator
covered with a lid or aluminum foil.

Either salad is ready to enjoy
whenever your belly starts to growl
midday before you are really ready
to sit down and make your main
meals.



Hard Boiled Eggs:

Take 3 eggs out of the box and
put in the bottom of a small
pan about 4 inches in diameter.
Fill it with cold water to cover
the top of the eggs, and sprinkle
in some Salt into the water. This
keeps the eggs from breaking while
cooking.

Bring the water to a boil, then
lower the heat to medium and boil
the eggs for 15 minutes. Remove
from the heat, pour off the hot
water and then fill the pan again
with new cold water. Let the pan
sit for about 15 minutes for the
eggs to cool.

Crack off the shells rather gently
and peel off everything. Rinse the
peeled eggs off under cold water.
Put the eggs in a cereal bowl
and into the fridge to chill.
When you are ready to make your
macaroni or potato salads, pull
out the eggs and slice them and
place them on top of the salads.
Sprinkle a little salt on.


Enjoy.

[Men-Vets ==== after you have done
these salads once, and really like
having them around all ready made
for when you want them, it will
get easier for you each time you
do these and you will not need to
read the instructions anymore. It
will just be automatic for you
to make these from the top of
your head. You will automatically
know what to get at the store
and food pantry to make these
2 salads happen. These are much
better quality salads than what
you can buy at the Deli counter.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet,